Armata tanks stay out of Ukraine over fears of reputational damage - British intel

The most modern Russian main battle tank, the T-14 Armata, never crossed into Ukraine as leaders were wary of potentially losing the valued asset on the battlefield.

That’s according to the British Defense Ministry citing intelligence reports, Ukrinform saw.

The head of Russia’s defense company Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, said on March 4 that the most modern Russian main battle tank, the T-14 Armata had entered service in the Russian army but would not be deployed in Ukraine. According to the official, that was due to the high cost limiting large-scale manufacturing.

The British Ministry of Defense notes that the T-14 Armata made a debut on Victory Day parade in 2015, when it stalled during a rehearsal. The 1st Guards Tank Army was due to receive Armata tanks in 2021 but it is highly unlikely that the delivery to any front-line unit has actually taken place, according to experts.

In December 2022, the next-gen Russian tank had been spotted during exercises in southern Russia as Kremlin intelligence agencies claimed it would be deployed in Ukraine, the review notes.

"To date, it is almost certain that the T-14 Armata MBT has not been deployed in Ukraine. This is highly likely due to the potential reputational damage of losing the ‘prestige’ vehicle in combat and the requirement to produce greater quantities of MBTs which can only be satisfied by other variants," British intelligence concluded.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in its previous review, British intelligence noted that in February, Russia employed unmanned aerial vehicles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure, including energy, in order to weaken Ukraine's industrial capacity.

Photo: Vitaly V. Kuzmin, vitalykuzmin.net/uk.wikipedia.org